John Gale Jones, A Political Tour Through Rochester, Chatham, Maidstone, Gravesend &c. (1796; republished 1997 with an introduction by Dr Philip MacDougall)
Paperback: £4:50

A book which has been accurately described as the next best thing to a time machine has been rediscovered by local historians and publishers after almost exactly 200 years.

The account, written in the form of a journal, and vividly depicting a wide cross-section of people and places in the Medway Towns and North Kent of 1796, is being hailed as a work of national significance as well as a literary classic.

The author, John Gale Jones, a bright spark from London who was known to his friends as John "Gaol" Jones due to the numerous prison sentences he received for his political involvement (then considered a treasonable offence), came to the area in February 1796.

His visit, which included Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham, Maidstone and Gravesend, was made on behalf of a democratic group which believed that all citizens should be entitled to the vote -- at that time, only a wealthy minority were allowed this privilege.

Immediately on his return home, Jones wrote his book, revealing a generous slice of eighteenth-centruy Kentish life as he visits the inns, coffee houses and meeting places around the towns. He attends a ball and other social gatherings, and chats to his fellow passengers in the stagecoaches, recording their conversations as if they had happened yesterday. In an episode that  might have come from Dickens, he goes to a local church and finds himself having to rescue a young boy from a brutal beating from the beadle.

Jones' unflinchingly detailed account of the conditions of French prisoners of war on the Medway prison hulks has all the force of the best modern news reporting, and draws the reader into the horrific experiences of these men.

But for all its seriousness, the books is a humorous and immediate record of a few weeks out of the life of a young man during a time of great social and political change.

Sadly John Gale Jones never saw the improvements for which he had fought so hard during his own lifetime; but with its republication his book will serve as a lasting memorial not only to Jones but to all the local people he describes -- many of whose descendants must still be living in the area.

City of Rochester Society Newsletter
May 1997

PETER DOWNTON

The latest reprint to come from the Baggin's stable is 'A political tour through Rochester, Chatham, Maidstone, Gravesend etc. by John Gale Jones'. Complete with an excellent and full introduction by Philip MacDougall it reproduces John Gale Jones' account of his visit, on behalf of the London Corresponding Society, to the places mentioned. His visit took place in February 1796 and despite its title, it gives a fascinating peep into the lives and attitudes of the people of the Medway towns.

The London Corresponding Society started life in 1792 with the avowed objective of securing universal suffrage and annual parliaments. It spread its network to the rest of the country but with a suspicious and repressive Government which enacted two Bills in 1795 designed to prevent public meetings of over 50 persons and linking such meetings with sedition and treason, the 'corresponding' method of organisation became the only relatively safe way of seeking support for the cause. However, in 1796 it was thought necessary to send out two delegates from London: one to Portsmouth and Jones to north Kent.

Writing in the quaint style of the time, Jones reveals much of himself in his recording of his impressions of Rochester and Chatham: he is little more impressed with the towns than was Defoe; but at least he met the people. The arrogance shows when he is surprised to find that "not all penetration and discernment" is the prerogative of Londoners. He complains of some persons that he meets as being dogmatic but gives a pretty good impression of it himself. He praises an 'honest farmer' on the one hand and dislikes him for his wealth on the other whilst on being told of the health and longevity of Gillingham folk, which he might have believed ".. had not I remarked that they drank considerable quantities of spirits" as well as the agues and fevers of north Kent.

He records the several meetings he addressed and as the narrative proceeds it is easy to see why a Government would be suspicious of his motives. At Luton for instance he leads the singing of "Go George we can't endure ye!" and it is clear that he is not only anti-war but pro-French; or at least supportive of the Revolution: "I do respect the gallant French Republic". This shines through in the visit he makes to the newly launched 'Ville de Paris' (what a strange name for an English man-of-war!) and the subsequent boarding of a prison hulk. He recovers from a naive request to the French prisoners to dance the Carmognole [sic
This is a book full of conversations and recorded thought which illuminates the history of that period despite Jones' republicanism and prejudices. Among other things it reveals the downside of so-called patriotism ...

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